WPP: Activist Investors Trigger A Breakup Battle

There is nothing that Private Equity likes more than an asset stripping breakup situation, especially a distressed one such as we are seeing at WPP in the wake of the Sir Martin Sorrell resignation / retirement.

They have been joined by activist investors looking for a breakup of the advertising giant, something which would almost certainly have been called for even if Sir Martin had not fallen on his sword. What one would expect to see here over coming days and weeks is pressure for the kind of corporate rejig recently seen at Whitbread.

Our understanding is that activist investors have been sounding out key shareholders, presumably not our Martin, in order to garner support for a breakup of the company to extract shareholder value. Queen of Media, Lorna Tilbian echoed the idea of a breakup earlier this week on the price ticker wallpaper channel, CNBC.